Wrapping Up Spring in May

I'm catching on to what's happening here.  Now that the girls are older, there aren't as many "cute" stories of funny things they have said and done.  That means I don't update nearly as much as in the past.  I think this once a month bit is working out fine.

We wrapped up May which always includes the hectic end of year activities at school.  "May-hem" as many people call it!  Still, lots of excitement in the air for our family as it feels like a new year since tax season has just ended, and the dawn of summer is upon us.  Here are several things we did this past month.

Lily made a delicious lemon cake and made this super cool polka dot fondant design on it.  It was delicious, and how cute is she making it?!

 I love when Mia reads to me.  We enjoyed several chapters of Lemony Snicket together.

 Lily found a nice place in our front yard for studying one lovely afternoon.

 Lily performed "Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter at Stonehaven's talent show.  I am so proud of her to play in front of everyone, and she sounded great!

 Ryan went on Lily's field trip to the Bible Museum down in Lagrange.  He and Lily both loved this trip and said it was an excellent place to visit.

 I took several days off and went to Gulf Shores for a long weekend.  I needed to decompress after a hectic tax season, and this is always a great way to do that.  It was absolutely beautiful weather.  I loved watching the sunset each evening over Mobile Bay.  Stunning.

 Lily made this red velvet cake for Mother's Day.  I love how she decorated it to make it appear the flowers were cascading off the cake.  She used the money she earned from filing at my office to buy lots of new piping tools, and she was excited to use them on this cake.

 The two reasons I love Mother's Day, right here.  I'm so thankful to be their mom.

 We were glad that Mom and Dad and Wayne's family were able to come over on Mother's Day evening for dinner.  It was a fun (and delicious) time!

 Lily's class had a "Hobbit" themed end of year party at our house.  Lily volunteered to make the goodies, and she came up with these spiced cupcakes with tye-died icing.  She called them "Dragon's Breath" cupcakes which I thought was so creative.  They looked and tasty so good!

 Mr. Scheidt with his 5th grade class.  This has been a great year!

I had a lot of fun on Mia's end of year trip to the zoo!  I love being with these fun kids.  One of the groups of boys went off on their own path (with a chaperone of course), but most of us stuck together and enjoyed exploring together. 

 At the end of school awards ceremony, Mr. Edwards thanked Elizabeth and me for our seven years of serving on the Board of Trustees.  It has truly been my privilege to do this.  

 5th grade girls.  This has been such a good group of friends.  We're going to miss several of them as they go to a different middle school next year.

Mia was quite excited to get this new Nerf Crossbow in her summer basket of surprises!

   Our family decided to try Bark at the Park this year with Decker!  It's such a fun idea.  They set aside a few sections in the park for dogs and their owners; they given each dog a Braves' leash too.  They have lots of little kiddie pools set up to keep them cool along with tons of bowls of ice water.  King of Pops is also there selling their King of Pups frozen treats.  It was a fun event, just very, very hot!  We made it through the fourth inning before we decided to head on home; it didn't help that the Braves were down 6-0 at that point (though they came back to win in the 9th!).

 At one point, a foul ball was hit, and the sound man rang the doorbell like he usually does.  This time though about 30 dogs started barking wanting to know who was at the door!  It was pretty funny!  Decker was on the big screen once; how could they resist such a cute puppy?  Kelsey (the girl who adds commentary throughout the game) gathered a group of a few people to stand around her with their dogs during one segment, so Ryan and Decker were on tv with her!

 The girls have been using their creative skills now that school is out which I'm thankful for.  I hate to think of them sitting around watching tv or playing on an ipad all day.  One day they came up with something called "The Everything Show" and recorded various segments for it.  They were cute to watch.  We played their recordings on the Apple tv so Ryan and I could watch.  Here's Lily as the host of a trivia game show with Mia as the contestant.  She won.

This has been another great year at Stonehaven, but we're ready for summer!

A Few April Pictures

Well, we're here at the end of April.  I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.  This was by far the most difficult tax season I've worked through.  We are all grateful it's complete.  The majority of these pictures were taken by Ryan and sent to me; they would brighten my day!

Ryan and the girls had a lot of fun in Birmingham for Easter weekend and the start of the girls' spring break at school.  They went to church at Shades Mountain, colored eggs and simply enjoyed hanging out with family.  It was a beautiful, wonderful weekend!

 I thought this was such a cute picture of Mom and Dad!

 I love when Mia reads to me, and doesn't she look beautiful in her new glasses?!

 Not even sure why Lily had all these Peeps on a stick, but it was a cute picture.

 Mia and Ryan have lots of fun playing the Wii together.

 Ryan and Mia had a fun morning at Chuck E Cheese one day during the break.  Mia was quite proud of her ticket count.

 Ryan took the girls to a Braves' game during the break too.  Everyone always enjoys a trip to The Battery.

Lily is such a creative artist!  She colored this beautiful picture on the left, and then she made a self-portrait emoji on a strawberry cake she made from scratch one day.

 Mia spent several hours one day working on a new script for the next Descendents movie.  I love when her creative juices start flowing!

 I couldn't resist snapping these two pictures of Lily sleeping.  For a few weeks, she made a little bed on the floor and enjoyed sleeping there with her Christmas lights going.  We had the Casey family over a few weeks ago to watch Secret Church with us, and they spent the night at our house.  We pulled the girls' trundle beds out and both girls have enjoyed sleeping on those too.  Apparently, Decker really likes sleeping on Lily's trundle as well!

  Always glad to have the Smith family over (even though I missed this fun and beautiful evening because I was working).

I came home the night before the deadline to see this on my kitchen counter.  The note was telling me not to peak.  After school on deadline day, Lily brought these treats up to the office to pull us through the last few hours.  She had experimented with blondies with a homemade caramel sauce, and they were quite tasty!

 

 Mia's class dissected owl pellets to see what the owls had eaten.  I love the look on Mia's face right here as she realized her friend Gabe had picked up his pellet with his bare hand!

 This girl is in the kitchen as much as possible which we all love!

That's about all going on around here!

Other March Happenings

Not many pictures from this month as I'm working way too much right now, but here's a few.

Lily wanted to try working with fondant one Sunday afternoon, so we stopped by Michael's and picked some up.  She made lemon cupcakes, iced them fun colors, and then decorated with fondant.  They were delicious and adorable!

 Decker looking all cute with his St. Patrick's Day bow tie.

 The girls were filing at the office one evening, and Mia left two pennies and this note on my desk: "A tip for my favorite mom! - Mia You deserve it.  I know it's not much.  So sorry."  This made me smile.

 My birthday was this month also.  We had a great time at the Harlem Globetrotters game!  I remember going to see them with my dad when I was younger, and it sounded like a fun thing to do.  Grandpops was in town, so he joined us.  We all had a great time.  They're a really entertaining group to watch.  This was lots of fun!  After the game, we hung around CNN and Centennial Park for a little bit, and then we headed over to Rathbun's for dinner.  Always a win.  On my actual birthday a few days later, this gorgeous bouquet of flowers arrived from Grandpops, Grandma Jan, and Taz.  They brightened up my office for well over a week!

 The girls held a lemonade stand in our front yard to help raise money for their Boosterthon Fun Run.  They raised $24 which they were very excited about.  Pink lemonade and candy are always a hit!

 They had a beautiful day for the fun run!  Both girls ran the maximum of 35 laps.  Decker joined in the fun too!

 Mia had fun running with Layne for part of the time.

 Lily helped lead the 5th grade team of "Dragon Slayers."

 Lily and Eliza had a good time at a Maggiano's cooking class.  They learned how to make gnocchi which I hope she will try out for us at home soon.

 Mia enjoyed her playdate at Eliana's house.  They have a great climbing tree that Mia loves!

 Lots of friends celebrated Emory's 11th birthday at The Battery one beautiful evening.  They had fun hanging out, eating Antico pizza and gelato, and dancing with the Heavy Hitters pep band.  Sweet girls!

 The girls were surprised with their Easter baskets a week early because they will be out of town for Spring Break over Easter next week.  Both received some flip flops, t-shirts, car bingo game, and a couple books.  Lily also received a few cooking items and a Squishable key lime pie she's been wanting for a bit.  Mia was very excited to get several rainbow loom bands and accessories pieces along with a Big Eye dragon that reminds us of Mal from Descendants.  They've been enjoying these items already.  I like doing little fun treats like this, and it's safe to say they enjoy receiving them!

Saying Goodbye to Meme

On Friday morning, March 9th, I received a phone call from my dad that I knew was coming.  My wonderful grandmother and last grandparent had passed away.  There was a flood of emotions.  Sadness because I will miss her so terribly much.  Relief because these last few weeks have been painful and the years have been long; she's been longing for Jesus to answer her prayer to bring her home.  I'm thankful she is no longer in pain.  There's also immense joy in knowing that she was now standing before her God in Heaven.  At 96 years old, she had lived a long life, so it was time for her time on Earth to draw to an end and let her eternal time begin.  On my way home that evening I heard the Mercy Me song "I Can Only Imagine."  It's always been a favorite of mine as it talks about how we can only imagine what it will be like to enter Heaven and stand before Jesus for the very first time.  I was overwhelmed thinking that Meme now knows exactly what you do at that time.

On Sunday afternoon and evening, we held her visitation at Carmichael Funeral Home.  There were lots of beautiful flowers; she always loved a pretty flower.  Any time you would show her one, she would say "that's the prettiest flower I've ever seen."  And she seemed to mean it.  She took such joy in seeing God's creation, and she was content to marvel at each beautiful piece.  Really, everything you showed her was the prettiest she'd seen, whether it was a sunset, ocean view, flower or animal.  There was also a video with 123 pictures that family had contributed.  It was so great to watch this.  The last few years, Meme has been living at Presbyterian Village nursing home, and she's been pretty much confined to a wheelchair.  We all loved seeing these older pictures of her up and about with her husband who we called Pop, her three boys (my dad and his two brothers), all the grandkids and great-grandkids, and of course, her in the kitchen.  That was her favorite place to be.  She showed her love to people by cooking.  Whether it was bringing ham biscuits to the hospital to celebrate a new baby, fried chicken and all sorts of delicious veggies for a family gathering, vegetable soup and cornbread to help someone who was sick or overwhelmed at work, or chicken salad for wedding and baby showers, she was always making something tasty.  We reminisced about the Thursday evening dinners she and Pop hosted almost every week while we were growing up.  We also had several photo albums out and one of her many Bibles.  She was always studying the Bible and cross-referencing different versions and study guides.  I remember at the house she and Pop lived in, her ottoman would always have no less than six different Bibles on it.  The love of Christ simply overflowed from her.  None of us could remember ever hearing an unkind word uttered from her.  This was a wonderful time with family and friends.  One friend commented that they've never seen so many smiling faces at a visitation before.  How can you not smile when you know that Meme has received her eternal reward that she has waited for?

Her funeral was Monday afternoon, and it was beautiful.  Jodi and Wayne spoke on behalf of her grandchildren.  They both did an excellent job describing just how loved Meme was.  Bob Shaw led everyone in singing "Because He Lives" which was quite appropriate.  Before we sang though, he asked everyone who had been taught by Meme in the nearly 60 years she taught Sunday School at FBC Chattahoochee to stand up.  I was proud to be one of the many who stood.  McKayla and Madi sang two duets together on behalf of her great-grandchildren, and they did a beautiful job.  Lee then delivered a wonderful eulogy for her.  One of the comments he made was "Meme lived her whole life for Friday morning," and I thought that was the most perfect thing to say.  He then pulled in Colossians 3:16a: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another all wisdom."  This is a very fitting of Meme.  Many people spoke of her commitment to and love for praying.  You knew she would pray for you and often.  She loved talking with God.  Just a week or so before her passing, our family friend, Rick Huckeba, went to visit her.  As he was getting ready to leave, he said "I'll pray for you Louise," and she responded "I'll pray for you too.  Do you want to start or should I?"  He let her begin.  Even in her last moments, she was thinking of others and praying for them.

After the funeral, we stayed in the church for a bit to speak to a few more friends, and then the family drove to the cemetery.  It was so incredibly cold and windy, so we had one prayer and just a few quick words here.  From there we all headed over to Wayne's house where we spent a couple hours enjoying this family that Meme has been the head of for so long.  Mom's church women's group had provided quite a feast for us which was appreciated.

There's no way I can fully describe how much Meme meant to me or relive all the amazing memories I have with her.  She was an incredible grandmother.  She game to as many ball games and events of ours as she could growing up and was always a source of support.  She was the first to pray for any need you had.  She would seek to find ways to serve others in unassuming and humble ways.  She was kind, gentle, joyful, and beautiful - inside and out.  Her life wasn't always easy with her father passing away at age 5 and growing up through the depression; she had breast cancer twice and survived a horrible car accident in the 1970's.  She didn't let that steal her joy or gratitude though.  I am so incredibly grateful that Lily and Mia will remember her.  In the week since this has happened, I have caught myself thinking several time "I wish I was more like Meme" in some respect such as my levels of joy or contentment.  It very quickly hits me though she wouldn't want that.  No, she doesn't want me to imitate her; she wants me to imitate Christ.  That's who she strove to be like and point others to.  She knows there is nothing more important than the decision to follow Christ.  She dedicated her life to serving Christ and His church.  I believe she has now received the reward for this incredible trust and faith by hearing the words "Well done my good and faithful servant."

Here are a few of my very favorite pictures of Meme.

 Cooking with her boys at New Smyrna in 2009.

 At her 90th birthday celebration in 2011.

 The first time Lily ever smiled was here, sitting in Meme's lap.  It tickled Meme so much.

 Sitting on the beach with Mia.

 A more recent picture from September of last year.  Meme's great-grandchildren brought her so much joy.  She would light up when they came to visit, and she always enjoyed hearing what was going on in their lives.  My girls will always know that Meme loved them greatly.

We love you Meme, and we'll miss you.  Thank you for all you've taught us.